Why Jamie Dimon And Sandy Weill Broke Up

The long partnership of
Sandy Weill and Jamie Dimon was the stuff of legends. Starting
when Dimon went to work for Weill straight out of business school
in 1982, the two men built a financial empire included Smith
Barney, Travelers and finally Citicorp. Then, suddenly, in 1998
it was over.

Weill, who had approved the idea of the article and whose PR team
had overseen the process, felt slighted by two things about the
article. The first was the accompanying picture, in which Dimon
was in the foreground and Weill in the background. To some, it
simply looked like Weill was a proud mentor looking over the
shoulder of his accomplished protégé. But Weill interpreted it
differently—as if it showed Dimon pushing Weill into the
background. McDonald says the picture outraged Weill.

But even more than the picture was a quote from Joseph Califano,
a Travellers director who had been the Secretary of Health,
Education and Welfare in the Carter Administration. Califano had
said that Dimon was actually running things. “He runs Smith
Barney,” said Califano, adding that Dimon was more and more the
driving force at Travelers as a whole.

Several people told Dimon that the story was going to cause him
problems. They were right. Weill barged into a meeting the next
day. "Who the fuck told Joe Califano to say that? And who chose
that photo?"

Still, Dimon failed to initially recognize the shift in his boss'
perspective. "I was still a little bit of a kid," recalls Dimon.
"Weill's PR people orchestrated it. He knew about it. He knew
better, and I didn't. But I don't think it was really about the
picture. He looked more like a proud father in it than anything
else. It was about Califano's quote. All of a sudden there was
the question: 'Is Jamie really running this place?' I think that
was what got to him."